So I took my car in for an alignment yesterday. I asked the tech to set it up according to Kussmaul's recommodations for the street GT3.
He was able to match everything else, except for:

1. Ride height at front, Kussmaul 115mm, and my car would only go as low as 120mm.

2. Camber at front, Kussmaul -2.5 dgr, my car wold only go -1.4 dgr.


Now I'm obviously not too worried about the 5mm height difference but I'm wondering if the inadequate negative camber leaves me longing for something?
Is the car now really in "Kussmaul tune" with such a major difference up front?
Could this mean the car is more understeering than what it would be if the camber was set according to the specs?

I haven't had a chance to push the car yet after the alignment so I would see if it understeers now or anything, but for the 30 miles I drove with it yesterday, it feels absolutely beautiful! Huge difference to pre-alignment feel! (I don't know how much my alignment was off from the factory specs when we started but my tech told me he had to do a LOT of adjusting to get to the Kussmaul specs.)

Now the question is, should I get shorter springs to achieve that 5mm drop and more importantly get the camber to -2.5dgr...?
Also, are there aftermarket springs I could use with the stock shocks?

Thanks for your input in advance!!

Juha

 

you need to invert the position of the front springs to achieve the required level of ride height and camber.

 

yep! I got that reply at rennlist like 2 hours after posting the question...

Here it took 9 days to get an answer and you being on rennlist as well, I would say it's 1-0 for rennlist when it comes to technical questions...

 

I have my car set at -1.8 degrees up front with no problems.

Adam

 

-2.5 degrees is a lot of negative camber for the fronts... I hope you've budgeted for tires since they will wear quickly (and unevenly) during normal driving. If this is your track-only car, please disregard.

 

That's what I was running on my M3 as well. Granted it eats the insides of the tires faster but I will be able to live with that knowing how much more grip I have while cornering.
I actually used to rotate my tires on the M3 for this very reason.

The GT3 is not a track only car but I don't drive it that much on the street either so it's no big deal. If it was a daily driver, -2.5 would be just too much.

Also, the geometry of the whole suspension has a big effect on tire wear.
-2.5dgr is a lot for some cars and not a big deal on others.

Thanks for the heads up though! Once I rotate the struts, my range will be from -2.5dgr to -4.0dgr...just like the cup cars come from the factory!

 

Just saw your burnout pics... You are a wild man - just like your namesake...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juha_Kankkunen

 

Juha Kankkunen asked my mom to marry him when they were both still in elementary school. And this is a true story...

Finland is a small country, Laukaa is an even smaller village and that's where both my mom and Juha Kankkunen are from.

I also know Kimi Räikkönen's wife Jenni. She's a good friend of mine's little sister...world is small!

I just wish I could drive like either of those guys!

 

I am half-Finn myself (mom's side). Gotta love Suomi!